ICAR-CIRCOT organizes Industry Interface Meeting

7th June 2023, Mumbai

The ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology, Mumbai organized an “Industry Interface Meeting” today.

This meeting was presided over by Dr. S. N. Jha, DDG (Agril. Engg), ICAR, New Delhi. Representatives from tractor manufacturing companies, Fertilizer industries, Textile industries, Food industries, Chemical industries, Briquettes and Pellets manufacturing industries participated in this meeting along with other cotton value chain stakeholders.

The deliberation on refinement of developed cotton pickers and its deployment in the farm, use of robots for cotton picking, deployment of pre-cleaners for mechanically picked cotton, evaluation and field testing of Nano-fertilizers (nano-zinc and nano-sulphur developed by ICAR-CIRCOT) and their adoption, development of tracer fibers for use in cotton value chain, production of activated carbon from cotton biomass were made during this meeting.

Dr. S.N. Jha put forwarded his wish for the establishment of “National Institute for Agricultural Robotics and Artificial Intelligence” in a public-private partnership mode to accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge technologies in the farming sector for the betterment of Indian farmers. Dr. Jha urged the business houses to establish sponsored chairs / laboratories in the Engineering Institutes of ICAR for fast-pace development of technologies based on commercial requirements and early adoption.

Sh. Lalit Kumar Gupta, Chairman-Cum-Managing Director, The Cotton Corporation of India Limited, Navi Mumbai put forward their ongoing efforts in establishment of RFID tagging of cotton bales and use of block chain in traceability for quality assurance. He also mentioned that CCI will continue to support in a major way during the centenary celebration activities of ICAR-CIRCOT during 2023-24.

Dr. S.K. Shukla, Director; Heads of Divisions and Scientists from ICAR-CIRCOT interacted with the participants in this meeting.

Shri. Suresh Kotak, Director, M/s. Kotak Commodities applauded the research work being carried out by the Scientists of ICAR-CIRCOT and urged the scientific fraternity to make it reach the end users for the benefit of the society.

 A.J. Shaikh, Former Director, ICAR-CIRCOT; Dr. K. Narasaih, ADG (PE); and Dr. S. Patel, Member QRT of ICAR-CIRCOT were also present on this occasion.

Dr. D.M. Kadam, Principal Scientist & Head, Division of Engineering Technology Transfer delivered the vote of thanks.

(Source: ICAR-CIRCOT, Mumbai.)